Reduction of dead zones by improving the ventilation system inside the TBM

EasyChair Preprint 1841

Abstract

Ventilation is one of the main components of mechanized tunneling to create a safe working environment for workers and machinery. A three-dimensional numerical model was built to study the airflow behavior and dead zones volume in the tunnel boring machine. Field measurements inside the Chamshir tunnel (Iran) at different cross-sections were also carried out to validate the numerical model. The results show that there are many dead zones from the control cabin to the end of gantry 5 in the backup system. Several applicable scenarios such as setup complete duct and switch off exhausting fan have been studied to minimize the dead zone volume and optimized the airflow velocity. The results show that the dead zones volume can be decreased about 80.09% by setup complete duct from the tunnel portal to the TBM mainframe and switch off the exhausting fan.

Keyphrases: Airflow, TBM, dead zone, safety, ventilation system

@booklet{EasyChair:1841,
  author    = {Hamid Reza Nezarat and Seyed Mohammad Esmail Jalali and Mohammad Khosrotash and Mohsen Nazari},
  title     = {Reduction of dead zones by improving the ventilation system inside the TBM},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 1841},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2019}}